Brendan O’Neill on life in an age of euphemism:

All cheered on by ladies of a certain kind.

Says Mr O’Neill,

At which point, the reliably ludicrous LBC presenter James O’Brien comes to mind.

With all of the earnestness he could conjure, Mr O’Brien described the intruders as akin to “climate refugees… moving from inhabitable to habitable,” before referring to Ceuta as “nowhere near as inhospitable” as Morocco. Despite Ceuta’s climate being indistinguishable from, say, Tangier or Tétouan.

“There was something about the footage that shook me to my core,” said he. Though the scenes of mass invasion and subsequent looting and disorder – described as a “wave of humanity” – were much less of a concern to Mr O’Brien than the prospect of some onlookers, and perhaps quite a few local residents, regarding the violation as less than ideal.

And clearly, these immensely vibrant young men, overwhelmingly of fighting age and remarkably unencumbered by women or identifying documents, are merely using other people’s cars to start fires of neighbourliness. Arson being the universal language of warm feelings.

It’s all one big expression of gratitude. Of common humanity. The ennobling effects of which can be found with little effort.

Because sharing and caring, right?

And when the uninvited newcomers swarming through your streets start desecrating your ancestors’ graves while hurling rocks at you, it’s just a sign that they want to get to know you better.

I’m reminded of the scene in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which Zaphod Beeblebrox visits the headquarters of the eponymous publication, which is under attack, being bombarded from orbit. Despite the thunderous explosions, he encounters obliviousness. In disbelief, and trying to be heard over the explosions, he shouts, “Do you know your building’s being bombed?!”

As a summary of our times, and in more ways than one, it does have a certain resonance.

Update, via the comments:

Chow Bag quotes this,

And replies,

Well, setting aside Mr O’Brien’s limited grasp of the Mediterranean climate, he did bring into relief one of the key ideological differences of our time, one that blurs into fantasy and psychodrama.

I mean, if you can watch the footage of the invasion and the almost immediate looting, arson, assaults, etc., and feel – or pretend to feel – an urge to indulge the invaders, to side with them over the people whose neighbourhoods, homes and businesses are being trashed and plundered, that’s… quite something.

It’s a line that divides, and in a significant way. It does suggest a rather fundamental incompatibility.

Blind taste test. || Lateral motion surplus. || Suboptimal scenario. || More magic cardboard. Previously. (h/t, Stephanie) || Adhesion detected. || The H-Man, 1958. Is there nothing atomic radiation can’t do? | Seeing, doing finger-math. (h/t, Tacky Raccoons) || Note to self. || The strange, grim tale of Britain’s “Hannibal the Cannibal.” (h/t, Neatorama) || Another day at the office. || Roadside ladies. || At last, cheating sneakers. || A critique of Nolan’s The Odyssey. Includes the words “boringly modern.” || Does yours do this? And should you be tempted. || Some punching required. || The progressive retail experience, parts 748, 749 and 750. || “First of all, those are not my pronouns.” || Complications multiply. || Sweaty pleasures. || On Mancini. || Not Marmite. || Things foreseen, and unforeseen.

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Because some things bear repeating, some items from the archives:

It’s A Laugh-A-Minute Lifestyle.

In which we ponder polyamory and supposedly “non-hierarchical” relationships.

Well, Soil Is Sort Of Brown.

Gardening is all about the “crisis in white identity,” says sociology lecturer.

Wherever Possible, Avoid Mad People.

Science fiction events, Mexican snacks, and the algebra of umbrage.

For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

I know, I know. I’ve been starving you of culture and refinement.

Allow me to correct that scandalous oversight:

The Western Europe you were talking about? 🫪😁

Two million euros spent on a dance performance by naked black people. “The Belgian government spent two million euros on an event aimed at protesting the era of colonization.” pic.twitter.com/lBXQ0Y4m1B

— Rusich 🇷🇺🇸🇪🇳🇴 (@Rusich7777) July 27, 2026

“I like it very much,” says one lady in the audience.

I knew you’d be intrigued.

The piece in question – by Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira, titled Repertório N.3, and performed during Ostend’s publicly funded Dansand! festival in 2025 – is, as I’m sure you spotted, a triumph of the political and profound.

Not only is the liveliness above “challenging and resisting the violence and oppression that black bodies face,” it’s a “brave elaboration of a queer black (self)-defense against physical and discursive violence,” and a “piece of queer Black Brazilian anti-colonial resistance.”

But you knew that, of course.

More specifically,

And then the aesthetic stuff really kicks in.

And what’s more,

It’s all deeply emotional. Very moving.

Reminds me of a club I was dragged to back in the Nineties.

Armed with a deep and radical knowledge of “postcolonial, gender and race studies,” and via the medium of nude side-shuffling, the performers are “finding new ways to represent the experiences of minorities.” Should any readers endowed with brownness care to elaborate on this point, preferably while dressed, by all means do.

For those of you craving more, highlights of another performance, from the ImPulsTanz Festival 2024, can be found here. Given the, um, nature of the piece, I’ve had to choose a screengrab with some care.

No, don’t thank me. All part of the service.

Update, via the comments:

As so often, questions are raised not by the mediocrities and grifters doing the, um, performing, but rather by the audience. The people who turn up and watch, as if they were beholding something of enormous importance, a feat of “anti-colonial resistance.”

As if “the experience of minorities” were somehow being epitomised – and defended against “discursive violence” – by two tiresome queens stomping about in the nude.

Daniel Ream quips,

While Dicentra adds,

The performance and its rather strained justifications do seem tailored to the kind of racial neuroticism favoured by progressives. Their hang-ups and affectations. An apparently inexhaustible resource to be exploited.

Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly:

Elite opinions change fashion faster than elite wardrobes.

When you express a luxury belief, you are communicating your level of education, your income, and your sociopolitical sympathies. It is an expression of what the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called cultural capital.

You… pic.twitter.com/1UgebJRJT1

— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) July 23, 2026

Mr Rob Henderson, speaking above and in this longer interview, has been mentioned here before.

The role of status-seeking in political opinionating, whereby a person’s professed beliefs function as a kind of social jewellery, the latest must-have, has cropped up here quite frequently over the years. Along with the inadvertent social gaffes that can arise if you’re not particularly interested in whether your views are perceived as suitably modish and high-status:

Oh, and this came to mind – on the unhappy siting of adverts – lots of adverts – for assisted suicide:

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.